Geelong’s AFLW season drew to a close in dramatic fashion last Saturday as star Echuca product Annabel Johnson watched on in Ipswich.
After stunning Melbourne by five points in last week’s semi-final, the Cats’ spectacular finals run was halted by Brisbane by four points in the preliminary, capping off Geelong’s best season in the competition.
Johnson, who has spent recent weeks putting the final touches on her recovery from injury, is now in the off-season.
“It was an exciting couple of weeks,” Johnson said.
“That’s the beauty of AFLW. You can make significant jumps throughout the season, and this is obviously the season where we built on our momentum.
“They were stressful games and really entertaining to watch.”
Despite falling short, the Cats have dished up an enthralling November finals campaign, defeating Essendon by three goals in the elimination final before thrillers against the Dees and Lions.
And it could have been a different story for Johnson if Geelong had progressed to the 2023 decider, with an unlikely return a possibility.
“I was pretty close,” she said.
“I got to train this week. If we had been playing a game this weekend, it could have been a close call.
“Just ran out of time in the end.”
Johnson will now look ahead to travels in Europe before returning to training with renewed vigour and a wish to get a full season under the belt in the rapidly rising AFLW.
“I’ll obviously be keen to get back into a bit of footy and try some different things,” she said.
“You can see when we had enough time to develop those game plans and have extra sessions, the whole competition took a big step forward.
“You would reckon as the girls get more games under their belt that it kind of becomes more full-time, the competition will only get better.”